Jack Cork has credited his sudden goal spurt to manager Ronald Koeman’s style of play.

The midfielder has scored twice in his last three matches for Saints – having gone 138 games before that, across two spells, without finding the net for the club.

Cork, who bagged the third in Saturday’s 4-0 win against Newcastle, said Koeman is encouraging his central midfielders to get forward more than his predecessors. And it is not just the 25-year-old who has appeared to benefit from that, with Morgan Schneiderlin having scored three times this season – already one more than he managed in the whole of the last campaign.

Last season Cork, Schneiderlin and fellow central midfielder Victor Wanyama only managed two league and cup goals between them – and the Frenchman scored both of them.

“In training, me and a few, like Morgan and that, are always half decent in front of goal. It is just over the last few years we have been playing a lot deeper,” said Cork, whose first Saints strike came in last month’s Capital One Cup win at Millwall.

“Last year all three midfielders didn’t really get forward that much.

“It was quite a lot on the strikers to score the goals and this year the boss has given us a lot more freedom.

“I played as number 10, really, for most of the game (against Newcastle) and it is not something I have done for a long time, but it was good, I enjoyed it. Hopefully I did well there.”

Cork added: “We didn’t really get the opportunities last year. We were always quite deep and defensive minded, and now I don’t think the manager minds us going forward if it’s on as much.

“That’s going to help Morgan and myself and a few of the other midfielders get the goals up.”